Site Selection

Finding suitable olive orchard land at the appropriate elevation and microclimate was a challenge.  Because of chill requirements needed to produce and set fruit, we restricted our search to the 2,000-4,000’ elevation on the portion of Maui that stretches from Upper Olinda to Kamaole in Keokea.  And, we learned quickly that if you could grow bananas and papayas well, you couldn’t grow olives.  Olives need a chill and should be more appropriately grown where you commonly find peaches, plums and apples.  We secured a site in this narrow band of land and set out to create Maui’s first commercial olive grove.  Since then we have helped plant and install over 8 other orchards of varying size with a total of nearly 10,000 trees in the ground.